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The hills are alive with the sound of Oprah

Maria von Trapp, photograph from her Declaration of Intention, dated January 21, 1944. Pictured right is Julie Andrews who played Maria in the Sound of Music (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21. United Artists)

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti D’Oprah?

In case you haven’t heard the news, the yodeling von Trapp family will be making an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show this Friday to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Sound of Music. Julie Andrews will be there, along with her stage-husband and stage-children. Also in attendance will be some of actual von Trapp family members who now travel the world singing famous songs from the hit movie.

The Sound of Music is a global sensation like no other. The movie soundtrack has gone platinum 12 times. The movie won five Oscars, including best picture. While the movie is 44 going on 45, it appears the world isn’t ready to say so long, farewell to one of its favorite things.

The day after the movie airs on television, visits to our web site go up 30,000 as people try to find out the true story of the von Trapps. Why us? Type in “von Trapp Family” into Google, and you’ll see Prologue has top billing.

We here at Prologue refer to strange web traffic spikes as the Von Trapp Effect (it took us a while to figure out why von Trapp was such a periodic hit). Check back with us after the Oprah show, and we’ll let you know just how many people Googled “Von Trapp Family” on Friday and came to our site. In the meantime, why not arm yourself with some Von Trapp facts and scope out the true story before Oprah does.

(Photo of Julie Andrews from United Artists, derived from The Examiner.)

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